Cause of cancer can be loss of function mutation that inhibits apoptosis(programmed cell death),or mutation that cause gain of function in mitogenic pathways so that cascade is activated even without proper signal. Sometimes there's defective receptor,G protein or other protein kinases..Sometimes gene is translocated near enhancers and overexpressed..or misexpressed in wrong tissue...Sometimes scanning of DNA damage before mitosis is lost because genes for those proteins are defective.In other cases,viruses bear oncogenes and can cause transformation of cell.

Point is that cancer cells will divide without controll and take nutrients,invade other tissues..their moving depends on cytoskeleton and ExtraCellular Matrix,and if one has luck..cytoskeleton structure can be defective(for example because of loss of some cross linking protein) so that cancer cells can't crawl and metastasize.Sometimes cells have defective proteases on surface that clear their path during migration through ECM so they stay trapped.

Whereever you see cancer cells they originated from one tissue,just metastasized..cancer originated from pancreas can be seen in liver or elsewhere but those are still pancreatic transformed cells..not liver cells..

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Sorry, guys, you got it wrong. I didn't mean if it was possible for someone to get cancer in all the cells of his body. I meant if any cell on the human body can get cancer, or if there is some type of cell in which cancer can't happen, somehow. Sorry for the confusion.

”It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” ~Charles Darwin

Good question. My first reaction was that every cell can get cancer. I say this because every cell has the whole DNA genome in it - except for mature red blood cells cause they eject their nucleus by a type of cell division process. Mmm..... maybe them, as most cancers have to have a genomic DNA with mutations to have a functional disfunction (does that make sense?) to be called cancer. The only other one that I was going to say was perhaps a germ cell. They are just a quiet type of cell that is quiescent, so they really do not function till called upon to do so by factors in the environment. The only time it could become cancerous is when it starts functioning and is mitotically active. How about the other quiescent cells in the body? The satellite stem cells perhaps? Though once they re-enter the cell cycle, they can then have the capacity for becoming mutated and cancerous, so then it is just a matter of time.

kolean wrote:Good question. My first reaction was that every cell can get cancer. I say this because every cell has the whole DNA genome in it - except for mature red blood cells cause they eject their nucleus by a type of cell division process. Mmm..... maybe them, as most cancers have to have a genomic DNA with mutations to have a functional disfunction (does that make sense?) to be called cancer. The only other one that I was going to say was perhaps a germ cell. They are just a quiet type of cell that is quiescent, so they really do not function till called upon to do so by factors in the environment. The only time it could become cancerous is when it starts functioning and is mitotically active. How about the other quiescent cells in the body? The satellite stem cells perhaps? Though once they re-enter the cell cycle, they can then have the capacity for becoming mutated and cancerous, so then it is just a matter of time.

That's right, you're a genius! Of course, red blood cells don't have nuclei so no DNA so no mutation, right? Thanks.If you can think of anything else, please share.

”It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” ~Charles Darwin

I thought about that too! Sickle-cell anemia is a mutation in the immature erythrocye, and makes a protein that does not hold on to oxygen very well. But that is a genetic mutation in the germ cell, and therefore I would classify it as a disease, and not cancer. Cancer is a genetic mutation, but it has to first be a fully functional cell, then the mutation should be somatic, and probably tumorigenetic?

Are you saying that it has to go thru mitosis with the mutation to be able to form cancer? Then you are correct. Otherwise the built in suicidal signaling cascade for apoptosis would have worked and the cell would not be able to reproduce itself and become cancerous.